1. Using the web sites, articles and resources in Modules 3 and 4, create an outline that contains ideas on how you might implement safety and prevent cyberbullying into your current curriculum. You will use this outline later when you begin to develop your Internet Safety Strategies.
2. Make sure you bookmarked the web sites and articles on Internet Safety that you may wish to use later when you begin to develop your final project on Internet Safety Strategies.
Project Outline (for Final Project)
Prepare a report which outlines the strategies you will use in your classroom to integrate Internet safety and ethics into your curriculum. Your report must incorporate the following Key Aspects of Internet safety and ethics:
Launch - At the beginning of the year, I will administer the survey that Gail & I created to use as a pre- / post-survey to gauge students improved understanding of digital citizenship, so that I can establish what they know and don’t know, and focus accordingly. I’ll do what I’m doing this year: give the pre-survey in September, and the post-survey in May. I expect there to be significant growth.
Your plan to explain your District's Acceptable/Responsible Use Plan to your students and their parents: Next year I am teaching 7th graders who are new to the school and our Netbook Academy, so it will be very important to set the tone correctly with them from the beginning. Rather than having me go through each of the sections of our 4-page AUP, I think I will put my students into groups of 4 and have them be responsible to present a section to the class. I’ll make sure each group understands the content correctly so they can present it correctly. We can then film it (in Spanish and English) and make the video tutorial available to parents and newcomers. I think having the kids teach the concepts to kids and their parents is a powerful model, and more effective than just hearing the teacher’s voice explain each point. At Back to School night, I’ll show the parents where they can access the tutorial videos, so that when they sign the form, they’ll have a better understanding of it.
Internet Safety/Privacy
The resources I’ll use to introduce this aspect at the beginning of the school year will be the Digital ID wiki, Foci #2 Building Identities & 4, Online Privacy http://digital-id.wikispaces.com, as well as these resources that I learned from this course:
This really useful list for parents from the FBI Parent Guide:
Instruct your children:
to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line;
to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally know;
to never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number;
to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images;
to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing;
that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.
http://www.surferbeware.com/safety/internet-safety-tips-parents.htm which included this gem: Letting children use the Internet unattended, particularly talking in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in Central Park and saying, "Go make some new friends."
Cyberbullying - there are so many rich resources from Linda, I don't know where to start. Here's the sequence I think I'll use to roll out this important issue:
Regularly integrate these lessons into our English Lang Arts curriculum -- make connections between bullies and victims in our reading of our core novels: The Outsiders, Nothing But the Truth by Avi, Anne Frank, and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, for example.
Respect: How to be a good cybercitizen I love this list of tips from Common Sense Media http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/be-good-digital-citizen-tips-teens-and-parents . My students' PSAs all need to end with a catchy slogan or phrase, and these include some real gems. I think next year, I'll assign the groups to tackle one of these 5 tips, so that I have a nice array of PSAs covering all these important areas.
Digital Citizenship Tips for Teens
For teens, we offer five simple rules of digital citizenship to help them create a world they can be proud of -- and inspire others to do the same.
Think before you post or text -- a bad reputation could be just a click away. Before you press the "send" button, imagine the last person in the world that you’d want seeing what you post.
What goes around comes around. If you want your privacy respected, respect others' privacy. Posting an embarrassing photo or forwarding a friend’s private text without asking can cause unintended hurt or damage to others.
Spread heart, not hurt. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Stand up for those who are bullied or harassed, and let them know that you’re there for them.
Give and get credit. We’re all proud of what we create. Illegal downloading, digital cheating, and cutting and pasting other people’s stuff may be easy, but that doesn’t make it right. You have the responsibility to respect other people’s creative work -- and the right to have your own work respected.
Make this a world you want to live in. Spread the good stuff. Create, share, tag, comment, and contribute to the online world in positive ways.
Critical Evaluation Skills to recognize quality on-line resources - this quote is so powerful to me as a starting point for introducing this important concept: "However, cyberspace, with the lowest threshold of publication of any communication medium, necessitates skills to evaluate the credibility of information, inspect sources, and look to see if the diversity of perspectives and people in a global community is fairly maintained. Subsequently, youth can help shape social and cultural interaction in a cyberworld by building on the values of respect, responsibility, justice, and tolerance." DEVELOPING THOUGHTFUL CYBERCITIZENSwritten by by Michael J. Berson and Ilene R. Berson. This really invites the student to be an active participant in co-creating a cyber-world of dignity!
Gail really jumped on this component. She realized how critical this piece is, and that we didn't have it included in our wiki, so she has already added some great resources from this course and included them on the Boundaries focus: http://digital-id.wikispaces.com/Focus+3+-+Boundaries
I love that I myself almost got caught just mindlessly consuming materials, with the 4-5 videos you posted, Linda, that all contained some kind of flaws (no citations, lack of clarity in sound, too fast-paced to be read, etc.) I want to see if my students can avoid the traps too. Great idea!
Internet Safety Resources for Parents - this was by far the biggest take-away for me from this course. I don't always think about ways to involve parents more, and the prompts from the modules really forced me to. Last night, at our Open House, I put up a wall inviting parents and students to add a comment about "What makes a good digital citizen?" - It was wonderful to see the students and their parents collaborating on their sentence strip. I really want to thank you, Linda, for helping me realize how important these conversations are. Photo attached.
What do you do if, despite your best efforts, you find your child has visited an inappropriate site (sexual content, violence, hate subjects, etc.)? The rule is, "Do not react--respond."
Find out why your child was there and what his impressions were. Go back to the site and discuss the content. Explain why the site is inappropriate. This can be an opportunity to talk with your children about race relations, sexual harassment, anti-Semitism, prejudice, etc.
As mentioned earlier, I want to weave DC throughout my ELA curriculum all year long, and include PSAs and student-generated tutorials for parents and peers as well. This year, for the first time, I'm organizing a Film Festival on May 18 to showcase all our PSAs. I'm expecting next year to be even bigger and better!
- nbernasconi Mar 30, 2012- nbernasconi Mar 30, 2012~~ Module 1 Check to see when your district’s plan was last updated.
I created my own version of AUP last year for my AVID Netbook Academy of 150 students within my school of 850 students. I didn't feel that the district's AUP was at all adequate for the intensity of use that we would be requiring of students, and I wanted to be sure we were covered. To create the 4 page document, I collected 4-5 sample contracts and highlighted all the key elements and then wove it into my own customized document.
Check to see if your districts AUP/RUP includes child safety and cyberbullying provisions.
Definitely, but interestingly enough, I didn't use the actual word "cyberbullying". Will want to modify that for next year.
Does it address copyright, plagiarism, and validity of resources?
Yes to copyright, but not explicit reference to plagiarism, and no clear reference to validity of resources, only to appropriateness of resources. So I see I have GAPS in my AUP!
Is the AUP/RUP proactive or reactive (positive or punitive)?
Both
Does your district require parental signature for students to be able to utilize the Internet, or does it only require a signiture if parents do not wish their child to use the Internet?
Parent sig required for use. Plus a media release form is included as well.
How well is the RUP/AUP understood by teachers, students, and parents?
I personally went over every single item with students. I know they got it because last week we had a student make bad choices and students were pointing out that it was a "breach of the contract we all had to sign." These are 8th graders!
We had the form translated in Spanish and parents had to sign (either in English or Spanish), but how well they understood it, I am not sure...
Who is involved in revising the AUP/RUP (and the technology plan)?
The District's plan was some mainly boiler plate template language, and hasn't been revised in a while. I started with it and then added every element I thought was needed for my own Academy's use.
Are teachers, students, and parents included on the committee?
No. Sore subject.
Analyze your districts’ AUP/RUP. Compare it to the examples provided in this module. What changes would you make if you were involved in revising it?
Already have noted I need to incorporate the actual words "plagiarism", "cyberbullying" and "validity of resources" judgement.
How might you assure that it is read and understood by all constituents (parents, teachers, administrators, and students)?
Create a Google Form / Survey about the contents and have a representative sampling of stakeholders fill it out.
As you view them add to your notes (in your Wikispace) why we need AUP/RUPs and why it is important for all concerned parties (parents, teachers, administrators, and students) to fully understand their provisions.
So much of the AUPs seem like common sense, courtesy and ethics, but I must remind myself that even adults need explicit warnings about appropriateness. (An IT Director once told me about a teacher who had set up a Russian mail-order bride business on school email!
Module 2
Reflection Questions:
1. How does this information on copyright correspond with what you already know and use in your classroom. Up until about a year ago, my own adherence to copyright laws was much looser than it is now. I've become much more aware of the stricter rules about copyright due to a medley of influences. Previously, I would use Google image search and post graphics I found on my lesson materials without citing them. Now, I would think of doing that, and now I've taught my students about search using creative commons filters.
2. How are you teaching your students about copyright? One thing I did was create a 5 min screencast about how to use Bibme in order to cite their sources, "because it's the right thing to do." The kids seemed to like listening to the video of my voice, than actually listening to me directly, go figure. Now they use it as a matter of course.
3. How do you model correct use of copyrighted materials in your classroom and in your daily life?
Mainly, I never include a graphic without also including the citation. Also, I use Bibme myself and add in citations at the end of my ppts or docs. I'm trying to get up to speed on some of the copyright free audio sites so that I can offer students a lot of alternatives to using copyrighted audio. 4. Do you observe violations of copyright law in your school or among your associates? If so, what violations have your noticed (perhaps now as a result of reading the above materials), and how might you help people to better understand copyright? At my school, with a faculty of about 50 teachers, there are about 10 of us who are learning to get scrupulous about copyright, about 30 of us who only use text-books and pre-authorized materials, and about 10 of us that are pulling from a wide variety of sources to enrich their curriculum, but without citing the origins. It's difficult sometimes for a teacher to try to "correct" a teacher, so I usually try to frame it as an important lesson for students to learn, and I share some resources to help teach the students good practices. Usually, the teachers make their own connections to improving their own habits so they can serve as a model for the students.
5. Why do you think some people violate copyright law? -
Speaking for myself, I know that there is a lot of confusion about "fair use." I got the impression that everything we teachers wanted to use was fair game as long as it wasn't being sold or beyond the classroom walls. But of course now so much of what we do is posted electronically to class websites, etc, so that confusion remains. I also think people don't recognize what it means to have intellectual property rights if they themselves have never created anything that has subsequently been "stolen." I have had that experience, and it is very unsettling. It helped me be far more sensitive to the rights of others.
6. Why do we have copyright laws?
To protect innovation. If just anyone can steal your original ideas, it devalues the role of the creator.
What have your learned about fair use that will help you in your classroom?
This part really helped me differentiate between acceptable and not acceptable "fair use" applications:
Just as there are situations that are more likely to cause lawsuits, there are some situations that may lower the risk:
You use a very small excerpt of a factual work, for example, one or two lines from a news report, for purposes of commentary, criticism, scholarship, research, or news reporting.
You diligently tried to locate the copyright owner but were unsuccessful, and after analyzing the fair use factors, you became convinced that your use would qualify as a fair use.
What do you find most confusing about copyright and fair use? What surprised you as you reviewed the above materials?
Actually, I was reassured that a lot of the readings confirm that copyright and fair use ARE confusing. I thought it was just me! The biggest piece I took away from the readings was the quantification of use. I had known for a long time about the 30 sec maximum on music, but hadn't been aware of the word count on text and time limits on video. That is really quite helpful.
How will you teach your students to follow the rules and laws pertaining to copyright and fair use? How will you model this in your classroom?
Credits and citations are now an automatic, graded component of all research activities and projects. Now, I always include references for any graphics or elements I find and use in my lessons.
To what extent will you change your approach to copyright and fair use as a result of what you have learned in this module?
I'm going to discipline myself more to only conduct image searches using CC licensed images. I'm also going to force myself to become more familiar with CC audio / music sites. I'm not particularly musical, but I can appreciate the creative power of Garage Band, and I can see that it is the way to go to wean my students off just automatically using their fave pop song in their videos.
Did you encounter any surprises in this module? If so what were they?
That confusion is normal, haha!
Module 3
Think about how you teach digital citizenship in your classroom. How do you integrate this with your academic content? How does your school or district promote good digital citizenship? How might you, your school, and/or your district better integrate digital citizenship into the curriculum? How might you help the parents of your students teach their children to be good digital citizens?
My main tool has been the Digital Citizenship wiki that Gail Desler and I created. I am trying to interweave it regularly into my ELA curriculum by showing students examples of characters / individuals who "step up" in literature and history.
As far as my school and district goes, I got an amazing email today from the Health teacher who roams between my middle school and another. She told me she would be using the wiki resources to do a unit on Cyberbullying. This is amazing because she teaches over 1,000 7th graders between her two jobs. That is an enormous outreach that didn't exist before.
So maybe there is hope for my district to improve its DC practices.
Keep the computer in a "public" area in your house.
Monitor your child's computer use. Talk with your children about their online activities and their online friends.
Check out parental controls available on your online service. Block adult chat rooms. Block Instant/Personal Messages from people you don't know. Install filtering/blocking software, or use a "clean Internet provider" that filters at the server level.
Do not let your children have online profiles, so they will not be listed in directories and are less likely to be approached in children's chat rooms, where pedophiles often search for prey.
Tell your children to never "go private" into a private chat room.
Tell your children to never give out personal information, including name, address, school they attend or teachers' names, parents' names, etc.
Tell your children to never, never, never tell anyone where they will be or what they will be doing, and they may never meet someone from online without you.
Tell your children to never respond to rude or offensive e-mail, messages, or postings.
Do not allow your children to post, send or receive pictures online. Picture files generally end with GIF, JPG, or JPEG.
Monitor the amount of time your child spends on the Internet, and at what times of day. Excessive time online, especially at night, may indicate a problem. Time on the Internet is time taken from other healthy activities.
Tell your children to let you know if anything seems strange to them, if they are asked personal ("what are you wearing" type) questions, or if their online friend invites them someplace.
Changes in your child's behavior (mention of adults you don't know, secretiveness, inappropriate sexual knowledge, sleeping problems, etc.) may indicate a problem.
Letting children use the Internet unattended, particularly talking in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in Central Park and saying, "Go make some new friends."
We also added a spanish page to our wiki about 3 weeks ago. The parents in our Parent Boot Camp really liked it, and my colleague who works in our COE with Migrant families told me she would be showing her migrant parents the site: http://digital-id.wikispaces.com/Digital+ID+en+Espanol
What types of cyberbullying have you seen at your school? Has your staff discussed cyberbulling and how to deal with it? If so, how cyberbullying being addressed? Does your school or district’s tech plan or AUP/RUP contain information on cyberbullying and how it is to be handled? What can you do to prevent cyberbullying?
Unfortunately, because of their access to the netbooks on a daily basis, my 8th graders are on the forefront of some of the abuses of technology. I only had 1 student, however, who committed an act of cyberbullying. He thought it was "just a joke", but the consequences were severe and public, and I am certain he won't be doing anything like that again, and it has served as a strong warning to others of what we will not tolerate.
One thing I created to help deal with the "perps" who show poor judgement with technology: I took all 6 students who stepped out of line, and I made them each write an essay about what they did and why it was wrong. Then I had them exchange essays with each other. Next we back lit each speaker as he read a peer's essay and video taped the reading and turned the video into a Public Service Announcement warning students what not to do. The writing was pretty powerful, and the boys read the scripts believably. On the video we wrote "Although the events described are true, they are portrayed by actors." This is true because they were not guilty of the particular crimes of which they were reading. I wasn't trying to shame them, but I wanted them to perform a community service act by creating a PSA. Hearing the words from a peer is always more effective than hearing it from an old person, so I think it was a really effective thing to do.
Hopefully I won't have any more "perps" this year that will require that particular treatment, however!
Consider how you might use these (5 videos and netiquette resources) to teach your students about digital citizenship.
Absolutely will share them with my 8th graders. It will help as we begin work on their professional e-Portfolios for the end-of-year. They need to include a section on how they demonstrate DC, so this will be really useful. Thanks!
OOPS! Back for a 2nd look. When looking more closely at the netiquette videos, some things jumped out at me.
1. The first video didn't cite any sources! It had music and lots of graphics obviously downloaded from the web, but no references. Oops.
2. The video down with Xtranormal also had a slight oops -- as she is explaining about "effective communication" and being understood, I'm laughing at how the word etiquette comes out sounding "etikwut" and I'm having some trouble understanding certain of her words. I found that to be ironic.
3. The video made with Animoto is well done, but it moves so fast, I can't actually read all the text points. But at least it references sources!
One of the videos just kept buffering, so I wasn't able to see it.
So yes, I would still use these videos with my students, but I would ask them to critique them from both a technical and netiquette perspective.
Module 4 (plus excerpts from resources from Module 3)
Great quote here:
"However, cyberspace, with the lowest threshold of publication of any communication medium, necessitates skills to evaluate the credibility of information, inspect sources, and look to see if the diversity of perspectives and people in a global community is fairly maintained. Subsequently, youth can help shape social and cultural interaction in a cyberworld by building on the values of respect, responsibility, justice, and tolerance." DEVELOPING THOUGHTFUL CYBERCITIZENSwritten by by Michael J. Berson and Ilene R. Berson.
The Original 9 areas by Mike Ribble et al (Gail and I have condensed this down to 4 for our wiki)
1. Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure
2. Communication: electronic exchange of information
3. Education: the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
4. Access: full electronic participation in society
5. Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods
6. Responsibility: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
7. Rights: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
8. Safety: physical well-being in a digital technology world
9. Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety
What do you do if, despite your best efforts, you find your child has visited an inappropriate site (sexual content, violence, hate subjects, etc.)? The rule is, "Do not react--respond."
Find out why your child was there and what his impressions were. Go back to the site and discuss the content. Explain why the site is inappropriate. This can be an opportunity to talk with your children about race relations, sexual harassment, anti-Semitism, prejudice, etc.
For teens, we offer five simple rules of digital citizenship to help them create a world they can be proud of -- and inspire others to do the same. Think before you post or text -- a bad reputation could be just a click away. Before you press the "send" button, imagine the last person in the world that you’d want seeing what you post. What goes around comes around. If you want your privacy respected, respect others' privacy. Posting an embarrassing photo or forwarding a friend’s private text without asking can cause unintended hurt or damage to others. Spread heart, not hurt. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Stand up for those who are bullied or harassed, and let them know that you’re there for them. Give and get credit. We’re all proud of what we create. Illegal downloading, digital cheating, and cutting and pasting other people’s stuff may be easy, but that doesn’t make it right. You have the responsibility to respect other people’s creative work -- and the right to have your own work respected. Make this a world you want to live in. Spread the good stuff. Create, share, tag, comment, and contribute to the online world in positive ways.
Here's a brilliant statement from Teaching Tolerance: http://www.tolerance.org/blog/bullying-civil-rights-issueabout how adults can be bullied too -- into not protecting students like LGBTs from being harrassed:
We’ve heard from many teachers who have ordered our new film Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case that Made History. Their reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. But a small handful have told us that they were not permitted to show Bullied to their high school classes, or that they saw it as inappropriate for junior high. More wished that we had included “non-gay” bullying. One woman I spoke with told me parents would object, adding, “If only you’d included other forms of bullying then you could have slipped the anti-gay bullying in.” To us, those fears are evidence of a hostile environment.
These are educators who want to protect their students. But they are afraid of another set of bullies—people who would accuse them of advancing a “pro-something (insert your choice here: gay, Latino, Jewish) agenda.” And that agenda, these adult bullies say, is to win special status for a certain group of students.
THIS IS A GREAT POINT REMINDING ADULTS WE NEED TO NOT BE AFRAID TO STEP UP TOO!
As you explore these resources consider how you will teach your students about cyberbullying and what they can do to prevent it. How will you reach out to students who have been victims of cyberbulling? How will you help parents to understand the implications and indications of cyberbullying for their children (both as cyberbulliers and as victims).
(I ordered a parent safety kit from Polly Klaus foundation and downloaded their 2005 online safety survey results.)
This is a good list for parents from the FBI Parent Guide that I could use
Instruct your children:
to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line;
to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally know;
to never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number;
to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images;
to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing;
that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.
As you view these [4] videso think about how you might use them, or the information in them with your students.
Anytime I put on one of these videos for my classes, they become 100% focused and attentive of every word. It is such a powerful medium, and the content is one that I think they recognize they need to learn about. That's why I'm making a big push to have them create their own PSAs, because video + peer-to-peer talk is so compelling.
1. Using the web sites, articles and resources in Modules 3 and 4, create an outline that contains ideas on how you might implement safety and prevent cyberbullying into your current curriculum. You will use this outline later when you begin to develop your Internet Safety Strategies.
2. Make sure you bookmarked the web sites and articles on Internet Safety that you may wish to use later when you begin to develop your final project on Internet Safety Strategies.
Project Outline (for Final Project)
Prepare a report which outlines the strategies you will use in your classroom to integrate Internet safety and ethics into your curriculum. Your report must incorporate the following Key Aspects of Internet safety and ethics:
- Your plan to explain your District's Acceptable/Responsible Use Plan to your students and their parents: Next year I am teaching 7th graders who are new to the school and our Netbook Academy, so it will be very important to set the tone correctly with them from the beginning. Rather than having me go through each of the sections of our 4-page AUP, I think I will put my students into groups of 4 and have them be responsible to present a section to the class. I’ll make sure each group understands the content correctly so they can present it correctly. We can then film it (in Spanish and English) and make the video tutorial available to parents and newcomers. I think having the kids teach the concepts to kids and their parents is a powerful model, and more effective than just hearing the teacher’s voice explain each point. At Back to School night, I’ll show the parents where they can access the tutorial videos, so that when they sign the form, they’ll have a better understanding of it.
- Internet Safety/Privacy
The resources I’ll use to introduce this aspect at the beginning of the school year will be the Digital ID wiki, Foci #2 Building Identities & 4, Online Privacy http://digital-id.wikispaces.com, as well as these resources that I learned from this course:- This really useful list for parents from the FBI Parent Guide:
- Instruct your children:
- to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line;
- to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally know;
- to never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number;
- to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images;
- to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing;
- that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.
- And this list from CommonSense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/be-good-digital-citizen-tips-teens-and-parents- And this one from the surfbeware site:
http://www.surferbeware.com/safety/internet-safety-tips-parents.htm which included this gem: Letting children use the Internet unattended, particularly talking in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in Central Park and saying, "Go make some new friends."- Really powerful and chilling list of ways cyberbullies attack:
http://stopcyberbullying.org/- Lesson Plans for (stand alone) DC lessons:
http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/mannersbullyingethics/lessons/Digital Citizenship Tips for Teens
For teens, we offer five simple rules of digital citizenship to help them create a world they can be proud of -- and inspire others to do the same.Think before you post or text -- a bad reputation could be just a click away. Before you press the "send" button, imagine the last person in the world that you’d want seeing what you post.
What goes around comes around. If you want your privacy respected, respect others' privacy. Posting an embarrassing photo or forwarding a friend’s private text without asking can cause unintended hurt or damage to others.
Spread heart, not hurt. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Stand up for those who are bullied or harassed, and let them know that you’re there for them.
Give and get credit. We’re all proud of what we create. Illegal downloading, digital cheating, and cutting and pasting other people’s stuff may be easy, but that doesn’t make it right. You have the responsibility to respect other people’s creative work -- and the right to have your own work respected.
Make this a world you want to live in. Spread the good stuff. Create, share, tag, comment, and contribute to the online world in positive ways.
- Very proud to be able to offer some resources in Spanish to my 85% Spanish-speaking parents on our wiki http://digital-id.wikispaces.com/Digital+ID+en+Espanol.
- Numerous excellent sources in English: As mentioned above, I really like this "Do Not React -- Respond" advice, from "Safety in the Cybervillage":
As mentioned earlier, I want to weave DC throughout my ELA curriculum all year long, and include PSAs and student-generated tutorials for parents and peers as well. This year, for the first time, I'm organizing a Film Festival on May 18 to showcase all our PSAs. I'm expecting next year to be even bigger and better!http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Safety+in+the+Cybervillage%3A+some+guidelines+for+teachers+and+parents-a0104520654
Do Not React--Respond
What do you do if, despite your best efforts, you find your child has visited an inappropriate site (sexual content, violence, hate subjects, etc.)? The rule is, "Do not react--respond."
Find out why your child was there and what his impressions were. Go back to the site and discuss the content. Explain why the site is inappropriate. This can be an opportunity to talk with your children about race relations, sexual harassment, anti-Semitism, prejudice, etc.
-
Module 1
Check to see when your district’s plan was last updated.
Check to see if your districts AUP/RUP includes child safety and cyberbullying provisions.
Does it address copyright, plagiarism, and validity of resources?
Is the AUP/RUP proactive or reactive (positive or punitive)?
Does your district require parental signature for students to be able to utilize the Internet, or does it only require a signiture if parents do not wish their child to use the Internet?
How well is the RUP/AUP understood by teachers, students, and parents?
Who is involved in revising the AUP/RUP (and the technology plan)?
Are teachers, students, and parents included on the committee?
Analyze your districts’ AUP/RUP. Compare it to the examples provided in this module. What changes would you make if you were involved in revising it?
How might you assure that it is read and understood by all constituents (parents, teachers, administrators, and students)?
As you view them add to your notes (in your Wikispace) why we need AUP/RUPs and why it is important for all concerned parties (parents, teachers, administrators, and students) to fully understand their provisions.
Module 2
Reflection Questions:
1. How does this information on copyright correspond with what you already know and use in your classroom.
Up until about a year ago, my own adherence to copyright laws was much looser than it is now. I've become much more aware of the stricter rules about copyright due to a medley of influences. Previously, I would use Google image search and post graphics I found on my lesson materials without citing them. Now, I would think of doing that, and now I've taught my students about search using creative commons filters.
2. How are you teaching your students about copyright?
One thing I did was create a 5 min screencast about how to use Bibme in order to cite their sources, "because it's the right thing to do." The kids seemed to like listening to the video of my voice, than actually listening to me directly, go figure. Now they use it as a matter of course.
3. How do you model correct use of copyrighted materials in your classroom and in your daily life?
Mainly, I never include a graphic without also including the citation. Also, I use Bibme myself and add in citations at the end of my ppts or docs. I'm trying to get up to speed on some of the copyright free audio sites so that I can offer students a lot of alternatives to using copyrighted audio.
4. Do you observe violations of copyright law in your school or among your associates? If so, what violations have your noticed (perhaps now as a result of reading the above materials), and how might you help people to better understand copyright?
At my school, with a faculty of about 50 teachers, there are about 10 of us who are learning to get scrupulous about copyright, about 30 of us who only use text-books and pre-authorized materials, and about 10 of us that are pulling from a wide variety of sources to enrich their curriculum, but without citing the origins. It's difficult sometimes for a teacher to try to "correct" a teacher, so I usually try to frame it as an important lesson for students to learn, and I share some resources to help teach the students good practices. Usually, the teachers make their own connections to improving their own habits so they can serve as a model for the students.
5. Why do you think some people violate copyright law? -
Speaking for myself, I know that there is a lot of confusion about "fair use." I got the impression that everything we teachers wanted to use was fair game as long as it wasn't being sold or beyond the classroom walls. But of course now so much of what we do is posted electronically to class websites, etc, so that confusion remains. I also think people don't recognize what it means to have intellectual property rights if they themselves have never created anything that has subsequently been "stolen." I have had that experience, and it is very unsettling. It helped me be far more sensitive to the rights of others.
6. Why do we have copyright laws?
To protect innovation. If just anyone can steal your original ideas, it devalues the role of the creator.
Just as there are situations that are more likely to cause lawsuits, there are some situations that may lower the risk:
- You use a very small excerpt of a factual work, for example, one or two lines from a news report, for purposes of commentary, criticism, scholarship, research, or news reporting.
- You diligently tried to locate the copyright owner but were unsuccessful, and after analyzing the fair use factors, you became convinced that your use would qualify as a fair use.
What do you find most confusing about copyright and fair use? What surprised you as you reviewed the above materials?Actually, I was reassured that a lot of the readings confirm that copyright and fair use ARE confusing. I thought it was just me! The biggest piece I took away from the readings was the quantification of use. I had known for a long time about the 30 sec maximum on music, but hadn't been aware of the word count on text and time limits on video. That is really quite helpful.
How will you teach your students to follow the rules and laws pertaining to copyright and fair use? How will you model this in your classroom?
Credits and citations are now an automatic, graded component of all research activities and projects. Now, I always include references for any graphics or elements I find and use in my lessons.
To what extent will you change your approach to copyright and fair use as a result of what you have learned in this module?
I'm going to discipline myself more to only conduct image searches using CC licensed images. I'm also going to force myself to become more familiar with CC audio / music sites. I'm not particularly musical, but I can appreciate the creative power of Garage Band, and I can see that it is the way to go to wean my students off just automatically using their fave pop song in their videos.
Did you encounter any surprises in this module? If so what were they?
That confusion is normal, haha!
Module 3
Think about how you teach digital citizenship in your classroom. How do you integrate this with your academic content? How does your school or district promote good digital citizenship? How might you, your school, and/or your district better integrate digital citizenship into the curriculum? How might you help the parents of your students teach their children to be good digital citizens?
My main tool has been the Digital Citizenship wiki that Gail Desler and I created. I am trying to interweave it regularly into my ELA curriculum by showing students examples of characters / individuals who "step up" in literature and history.
As far as my school and district goes, I got an amazing email today from the Health teacher who roams between my middle school and another. She told me she would be using the wiki resources to do a unit on Cyberbullying. This is amazing because she teaches over 1,000 7th graders between her two jobs. That is an enormous outreach that didn't exist before.
So maybe there is hope for my district to improve its DC practices.
I decided to dig deeper for parent information.
I like this list from the surfbeware site:
http://www.surferbeware.com/safety/internet-safety-tips-parents.htm , even though it appears to be about 8 years old!
- Keep the computer in a "public" area in your house.
- Check out parental controls available on your online service. Block adult chat rooms. Block Instant/Personal Messages from people you don't know. Install filtering/blocking software, or use a "clean Internet provider" that filters at the server level.
- Do not let your children have online profiles, so they will not be listed in directories and are less likely to be approached in children's chat rooms, where pedophiles often search for prey.
- Tell your children to never "go private" into a private chat room.
- Tell your children to never give out personal information, including name, address, school they attend or teachers' names, parents' names, etc.
- Tell your children to never, never, never tell anyone where they will be or what they will be doing, and they may never meet someone from online without you.
- Tell your children to never respond to rude or offensive e-mail, messages, or postings.
- Do not allow your children to post, send or receive pictures online. Picture files generally end with GIF, JPG, or JPEG.
- Monitor the amount of time your child spends on the Internet, and at what times of day. Excessive time online, especially at night, may indicate a problem. Time on the Internet is time taken from other healthy activities.
- Tell your children to let you know if anything seems strange to them, if they are asked personal ("what are you wearing" type) questions, or if their online friend invites them someplace.
- Changes in your child's behavior (mention of adults you don't know, secretiveness, inappropriate sexual knowledge, sleeping problems, etc.) may indicate a problem.
- Letting children use the Internet unattended, particularly talking in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in Central Park and saying, "Go make some new friends."
We also added a spanish page to our wiki about 3 weeks ago. The parents in our Parent Boot Camp really liked it, and my colleague who works in our COE with Migrant families told me she would be showing her migrant parents the site:Monitor your child's computer use. Talk with your children about their online activities and their online friends.
http://digital-id.wikispaces.com/Digital+ID+en+Espanol
What types of cyberbullying have you seen at your school? Has your staff discussed cyberbulling and how to deal with it? If so, how cyberbullying being addressed? Does your school or district’s tech plan or AUP/RUP contain information on cyberbullying and how it is to be handled? What can you do to prevent cyberbullying?
Unfortunately, because of their access to the netbooks on a daily basis, my 8th graders are on the forefront of some of the abuses of technology. I only had 1 student, however, who committed an act of cyberbullying. He thought it was "just a joke", but the consequences were severe and public, and I am certain he won't be doing anything like that again, and it has served as a strong warning to others of what we will not tolerate.
One thing I created to help deal with the "perps" who show poor judgement with technology: I took all 6 students who stepped out of line, and I made them each write an essay about what they did and why it was wrong. Then I had them exchange essays with each other. Next we back lit each speaker as he read a peer's essay and video taped the reading and turned the video into a Public Service Announcement warning students what not to do. The writing was pretty powerful, and the boys read the scripts believably. On the video we wrote "Although the events described are true, they are portrayed by actors." This is true because they were not guilty of the particular crimes of which they were reading. I wasn't trying to shame them, but I wanted them to perform a community service act by creating a PSA. Hearing the words from a peer is always more effective than hearing it from an old person, so I think it was a really effective thing to do.
Hopefully I won't have any more "perps" this year that will require that particular treatment, however!
Consider how you might use these (5 videos and netiquette resources) to teach your students about digital citizenship.
Absolutely will share them with my 8th graders. It will help as we begin work on their professional e-Portfolios for the end-of-year. They need to include a section on how they demonstrate DC, so this will be really useful. Thanks!
OOPS! Back for a 2nd look. When looking more closely at the netiquette videos, some things jumped out at me.
1. The first video didn't cite any sources! It had music and lots of graphics obviously downloaded from the web, but no references. Oops.
2. The video down with Xtranormal also had a slight oops -- as she is explaining about "effective communication" and being understood, I'm laughing at how the word etiquette comes out sounding "etikwut" and I'm having some trouble understanding certain of her words. I found that to be ironic.
3. The video made with Animoto is well done, but it moves so fast, I can't actually read all the text points. But at least it references sources!
One of the videos just kept buffering, so I wasn't able to see it.
So yes, I would still use these videos with my students, but I would ask them to critique them from both a technical and netiquette perspective.
Module 4 (plus excerpts from resources from Module 3)
Great quote here:
"However, cyberspace, with the lowest threshold of publication of any communication medium, necessitates skills to evaluate the credibility of information, inspect sources, and look to see if the diversity of perspectives and people in a global community is fairly maintained. Subsequently, youth can help shape social and cultural interaction in a cyberworld by building on the values of respect, responsibility, justice, and tolerance."
DEVELOPING THOUGHTFUL CYBERCITIZENSwritten by by Michael J. Berson and Ilene R. Berson.
The Original 9 areas by Mike Ribble et al (Gail and I have condensed this down to 4 for our wiki)
1. Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure
2. Communication: electronic exchange of information
3. Education: the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
4. Access: full electronic participation in society
5. Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods
6. Responsibility: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
7. Rights: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
8. Safety: physical well-being in a digital technology world
9. Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety
I really like this "Do Not React -- Respond" advice, from "Safety in the Cybervillage":
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Safety+in+the+Cybervillage%3A+some+guidelines+for+teachers+and+parents-a0104520654
Do Not React--Respond
What do you do if, despite your best efforts, you find your child has visited an inappropriate site (sexual content, violence, hate subjects, etc.)? The rule is, "Do not react--respond."
Find out why your child was there and what his impressions were. Go back to the site and discuss the content. Explain why the site is inappropriate. This can be an opportunity to talk with your children about race relations, sexual harassment, anti-Semitism, prejudice, etc.
I've been looking for a set of slogans or phrases for my students to include at the end of their PSAs. This list from CommonSense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/be-good-digital-citizen-tips-teens-and-parents has some gems!
Digital Citizenship Tips for Teens
For teens, we offer five simple rules of digital citizenship to help them create a world they can be proud of -- and inspire others to do the same.Think before you post or text -- a bad reputation could be just a click away. Before you press the "send" button, imagine the last person in the world that you’d want seeing what you post.
What goes around comes around. If you want your privacy respected, respect others' privacy. Posting an embarrassing photo or forwarding a friend’s private text without asking can cause unintended hurt or damage to others.
Spread heart, not hurt. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Stand up for those who are bullied or harassed, and let them know that you’re there for them.
Give and get credit. We’re all proud of what we create. Illegal downloading, digital cheating, and cutting and pasting other people’s stuff may be easy, but that doesn’t make it right. You have the responsibility to respect other people’s creative work -- and the right to have your own work respected.
Make this a world you want to live in. Spread the good stuff. Create, share, tag, comment, and contribute to the online world in positive ways.
Here's a brilliant statement from Teaching Tolerance:
http://www.tolerance.org/blog/bullying-civil-rights-issue about how adults can be bullied too -- into not protecting students like LGBTs from being harrassed:
We’ve heard from many teachers who have ordered our new film Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case that Made History. Their reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. But a small handful have told us that they were not permitted to show Bullied to their high school classes, or that they saw it as inappropriate for junior high. More wished that we had included “non-gay” bullying. One woman I spoke with told me parents would object, adding, “If only you’d included other forms of bullying then you could have slipped the anti-gay bullying in.”
To us, those fears are evidence of a hostile environment.
These are educators who want to protect their students. But they are afraid of another set of bullies—people who would accuse them of advancing a “pro-something (insert your choice here: gay, Latino, Jewish) agenda.” And that agenda, these adult bullies say, is to win special status for a certain group of students.
THIS IS A GREAT POINT REMINDING ADULTS WE NEED TO NOT BE AFRAID TO STEP UP TOO!
Really powerful and chilling list of ways cyberbullies attack:
http://stopcyberbullying.org/
Lesson Plans for (stand alone) DC lessons:
http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/mannersbullyingethics/lessons/
http://twuid.pbworks.com/w/page/22561443/Netiquette-for-Students - useful list that includes how your email address should be designed for a positive presentation.
As you explore these resources consider how you will teach your students about cyberbullying and what they can do to prevent it. How will you reach out to students who have been victims of cyberbulling? How will you help parents to understand the implications and indications of cyberbullying for their children (both as cyberbulliers and as victims).
(I ordered a parent safety kit from Polly Klaus foundation and downloaded their 2005 online safety survey results.)
This is a good list for parents from the FBI Parent Guide that I could use
As you view these [4] videso think about how you might use them, or the information in them with your students.
Anytime I put on one of these videos for my classes, they become 100% focused and attentive of every word. It is such a powerful medium, and the content is one that I think they recognize they need to learn about. That's why I'm making a big push to have them create their own PSAs, because video + peer-to-peer talk is so compelling.
Module 5